The present invention relates to methods of producing a stabilized aspartame (APM) ingredient for chewing gum.
In recent years, effort has been devoted to increasing the stability of APM used in chewing gum. Many of these efforts have involved encapsulating or otherwise coating the APM with materials capable of protecting the APM within the chewing gum. Examples of methods used are spray drying, fluid bed coating and the like.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,970 to Sharma et al., teaches a process for producing an agglomerated sweetener wherein the sweetener is dispersed in a hydrophobic matrix consisting essentially of lecithin, a glyceride, and a fatty acid or wax having a melting point between 25.degree. and 100.degree. C. The method disclosed uses a spray congealing step to form the sweetener-containing matrix into droplets followed by a fluid bed second coating on the agglomerated particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,639, to Bahoshy et al., teaches a process of "fixing" APM by co-drying (by spray or fluid bed drying) a solution containing APM and an encapsulating agent, such as gum arabic, to thereby surround and protect the APM during storage in the gum.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,004, to Cea et al., teaches a method of encapsulating APM with various solutions of encapsulating agents using various encapsulation techniques such as fluidized bed coating in order to increase the shelf-stability of the APM.
Naturally, the processes which use spray drying or fluid bed techniques for encapsulating the ingredients involve a relatively large investment in equipment and require skilled operating personnel and sophisticated process controls.
Also, such coating methods typically have, as a side effect, the reduction of the release rate of the APM from chewing gum. For many applications the reduction is a benefit in that it extends the time the gum is sweetened by the APM, thereby providing a chewing gum with extra long lasting sweetness.
In spite of the potential benefits in reducing the release rate of the APM, it may also be desirable to provide at least a portion of the APM in a particular chewing gum formulation in a form that has a relatively fast release rate. Typically this is desirable so that the consumer experiences the proper sweetness during initial chewing, i.e. "up front sweetness".